From the beginning of a student’s four year adventure at Keene State College, the college recognizes the “rape culture” our generation is facing.
Within days of living on campus, students see the affects of sexual assault on a college campus from the No Zebras production.
“Sober sex is dope sex” stickers were distributed and members from Monadnock Center for Violence Prevention spoke about the dangers of mixing alcohol with sex.
KSC provides constant support for victims of sexual assault and makes sure students are aware of it.
Each semester the school provides self defense classes for both men and women. Rape self defense classes are offered to women and resisting aggression with self defense classes are offered for men. These courses are described as suitable for women and men of all ages and use lecture, discussion and self-defense techniques and have a foundation in education and awareness, according to Campus Safety.
George Amaru / Art director
In my opinion, more schools should provide these types of classes and bring more awareness to their students.
The Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network reports that college-aged women are four times more likely than any other age group to face sexual assault. KSC is a lot smaller than other public schools, and I’m not saying sexual assault doesn’t happen here, but statistics show that the larger the school, the larger the likelihood of sexual assault.
According to Business Insider, the federal government released a list of 55 colleges being investigated in 2014 for potential sexual assault policy violations “after revealing in January that students ‘experience some of the highest rates of sexual assault’ in the country.”
Schools such as the University of Virginia, University of California- Berkley, Emerson College, and as close as Dartmouth College are being investigated as of 2014 for their handling of sexual assault cases.
It’s unbelievable to think that we walk past people on campus that could have been victims of sexual assault.
I think KSC does a great job at providing a safe environment where students feel safe to talk about sex. It’s important to know that we as students have people we can talk to in confidence.
Places like the counseling center, the Aspire program and even surrounding organizations such as MCVP provide a sense of relief to students suffering from a sexual assault encounter.
It’s important that bystanders and victims have a safe place to share their feelings. I think that more schools need to acknowledge that sex happens. Sexual assault happens.
If colleges and universities increase the awareness of sexual assault on campus, we can prevent it as a whole, and not have to worry about whether or not our fellow classmates that we walk past every day have suffered from sexual assault.
Mackenzie Clarke can be contacted at mclarke@kscequinox.com
